In today’s collaborative, fast-paced workplace, technical expertise alone isn’t enough. The ability to influence others—without coercion or formal authority—is often what distinguishes successful professionals from the rest. Whether you’re aiming to align a cross-functional team, gain leadership buy-in, or simply get support for your ideas, mastering influencing skills is essential. But what does “influencing skills” really look like in action? Let’s explore three practical, real-world examples that showcase how influence works in professional settings, how it’s used effectively, and how you can develop it for your own success.
Example 1: Influencing Without Authority – Convincing Leadership to Approve a New Project
The Situation
Sarah is a mid-level marketing analyst at a tech company. She doesn’t manage a team, but she notices an opportunity: their customer retention numbers are slipping due to a lack of post-sale engagement. Sarah has an idea to implement a simple but effective customer onboarding email campaign using personalized content. The problem? The company leadership isn’t focused on retention. Their current budget and roadmap revolve around new user acquisition. Sarah has no direct authority to change priorities or allocate funds.
The Influence Strategy
Instead of going straight to leadership with a formal proposal, Sarah uses a strategic influencing approach:
- Gathering data: She starts by pulling retention data over the last 12 months and identifies the drop-off points. She combines this with competitor benchmarking and feedback from customer success teams.
- Creating allies: Sarah shares her idea with a few colleagues in customer service and product management. By framing it as a way to improve user satisfaction and reduce churn, she gets informal support.
- Storytelling and timing: When a product team retrospective reveals complaints about user drop-off, Sarah seizes the moment. She shares a short, compelling presentation with concrete numbers and a low-cost plan to test her email campaign.
The Outcome
Her approach leads to an experimental approval from a senior product manager to pilot the campaign. The pilot improves user retention by 18% over six weeks. The success earns her recognition—and more importantly, future budget flexibility for post-sale initiatives.
The Lesson
Influencing without authority requires empathy, timing, data, and storytelling. Sarah succeeded not by pushing, but by aligning her idea with existing goals, earning support gradually, and letting the results speak for themselves.
Example 2: Peer Influence – Leading Change in a Resistant Team
The Situation
James works in the operations department of a logistics firm. The company has recently introduced a new digital platform for inventory tracking. While management is excited, many front-line staff are resistant. They see the change as unnecessary, complicated, and time-consuming. Although James isn’t in a formal leadership role, he understands that successful adoption of the system is critical. And more importantly, he doesn’t want his team to fall behind.
The Influence Strategy
James uses peer-level influencing—a subtle but powerful form of leadership:
- Modeling the change: He learns the new platform himself, then starts using it regularly. He makes sure others can see that it’s not as hard as they feared.
- Making it relatable: Instead of explaining how the system works technically, James explains how it saves time during reporting. He tells coworkers, “Before, I had to count everything by hand. Now, I can scan and export in minutes.”
- Creating micro-successes: He helps one colleague input inventory using the platform. When they finish faster than expected, he praises them in front of others.
- Avoiding confrontation: Rather than shaming or pressuring anyone, James focuses on being helpful and positive, offering small suggestions like, “Want me to show you a trick that helped me?”
The Outcome
Over the next two months, adoption of the platform rises steadily among his peers. Eventually, the team manager takes notice and asks James to help lead training sessions company-wide. What began as informal influence turns into a recognized leadership opportunity.
The Lesson
Peer influence doesn’t require a title. It relies on credibility, modeling behavior, and social proof. James influenced his team by removing fear, demonstrating value, and leading by example.
Example 3: Upward Influence – Managing Expectations with a Demanding Boss
The Situation
Priya is a senior product designer in a fintech startup. Her manager is brilliant but notorious for micromanaging and pushing aggressive timelines. He often assigns tasks without fully understanding how long they’ll take, leading to burnout and frustration among the team. Priya wants to deliver great work—but she also wants to set realistic boundaries and avoid overpromising.
The Influence Strategy
Priya knows that confronting her boss head-on or simply saying “no” would likely backfire. Instead, she applies upward influencing techniques:
- Pre-framing expectations: At the start of new projects, she sends a quick email or message summarizing goals, timelines, and who’s responsible for what. This subtly anchors more realistic deadlines.
- Offering structured options: When asked to turn something around “ASAP,” Priya replies with something like: “I can deliver Version A in 2 days or Version B with full animations in 5 days. Which works best?”
- Data and transparency: She occasionally includes short reports on her team’s bandwidth using visuals—a small calendar with overlapping project timelines. This helps her boss understand without making it feel personal.
- Recognizing their pressure: Priya acknowledges her manager’s urgency with phrases like, “I know this project is important, and I want to make sure we get it right.” This shows alignment before negotiating.
The Outcome
Over time, her boss starts to default to asking her for estimates and begins respecting the boundaries she subtly sets. Her team reports less stress, and project outcomes improve due to better planning.
The Lesson
Influencing upward means managing expectations without creating conflict. Priya uses empathy, assertive communication, and proactive structure to guide her manager toward better collaboration.
Key Influencing Techniques in Action
Across all three examples, successful influence wasn’t about charisma or manipulation—it was about strategy, emotional intelligence, and communication. Some of the most useful techniques demonstrated include:
- Building credibility through action
- Using data to support opinions
- Framing options rather than giving ultimatums
- Finding allies before making a pitch
- Timing ideas with the broader context
- Listening and adapting based on feedback
- Communicating with empathy
These approaches work because they appeal not only to logic but to human behavior. People are more likely to support ideas they feel connected to—when those ideas reflect their values, goals, or emotions.
Why Influencing Skills Matter in the Modern Workplace
Influence is the currency of modern collaboration. In flat hierarchies, cross-functional teams, and hybrid work models, command-and-control structures are no longer sufficient. Teams need:
- Shared vision rather than orders
- Voluntary buy-in rather than forced compliance
- Psychological safety to express disagreement and innovate
Strong influencing skills support all of this. They help professionals:
- Drive change initiatives
- Improve team engagement
- Navigate office politics without manipulation
- Secure resources and recognition for good ideas
- Improve communication across roles and departments
In short, influence is a key leadership trait—even for those who aren’t in official leadership roles.
How to Develop Your Influencing Skills
You don’t have to be born persuasive to influence others effectively. Like any skill, it can be developed through practice:
- Observe influential people in your workplace. What language do they use? How do they structure ideas?
- Ask for feedback on your communication style and how your suggestions are received.
- Practice framing ideas around shared goals rather than personal preferences.
- Work on emotional regulation so that you can stay calm during pushback or disagreement.
- Keep building credibility by delivering on promises and supporting your peers.
And finally, remember: Influence is a long game. It’s built on trust, reinforced by consistency, and strengthened by empathy.
Example 4: Cross-Department Influence – Aligning Sales and Marketing for a Unified Campaign
The Situation
Nina is a content strategist working in the marketing department of a growing SaaS company. The sales team frequently complains that the marketing content doesn’t help them close deals. Meanwhile, the marketing team feels frustrated because sales reps rarely use the content they produce. The disconnect is costing the company missed opportunities—and Nina decides to do something about it, even though she has no formal authority over the sales department.
The Influence Strategy
Nina approaches the challenge with a collaborative mindset:
- Listening first: She invites three top-performing sales reps to informal coffee chats and asks what type of content actually helps them during sales calls. Instead of defending marketing’s efforts, she actively listens to the pain points.
- Shared goals framing: She then brings the feedback to her marketing director and reframes the problem: “It’s not that our content is bad—it’s that we’re solving different problems. What if we co-create with sales?”
- Quick wins to build momentum: Nina organizes a 2-hour workshop between sales and marketing to co-develop one new sales enablement asset: a customer objection-handling guide. She chooses a format that’s easy to execute and deliver.
- Measuring success: After the guide is released, she tracks its usage in CRM notes and discovers a 12% boost in closed deals when reps use the document.
The Outcome
The small success earns her the opportunity to lead a quarterly “sales-marketing sync” where both teams align upcoming campaigns. Within six months, mutual trust between the departments grows significantly—and cross-functional collaboration becomes a norm.
The Lesson
Influencing across departments requires curiosity, bridge-building, and outcome-focused communication. Nina influenced two teams by showing empathy, creating shared wins, and speaking the language of value.
Example 5: Influencing Through Mentorship – Empowering a Struggling Colleague
The Situation
David is a senior developer in a software company. A junior teammate, Alex, is talented but shy, often hesitating to speak up in meetings or share new ideas. As a result, Alex’s contributions are undervalued, and his confidence is beginning to fade. David sees potential in Alex and wants to help—but he also understands that offering unsolicited advice could come off as condescending.
The Influence Strategy
David chooses a mentoring approach rooted in trust and empowerment:
- Creating a safe space: He begins by casually asking Alex’s opinion after meetings: “Hey, I noticed you had a good idea during the stand-up. What were you thinking?” This opens the door to deeper conversation.
- Positive reinforcement: When Alex shares ideas, David highlights them during team meetings—without taking credit. For example: “Actually, Alex had a great suggestion during our chat yesterday. I think it’s worth exploring.”
- Role reversal technique: David occasionally asks Alex for help on small tasks, signaling trust in his expertise and reducing the mentor-mentee hierarchy.
- Co-presenting opportunities: When a project demo comes up, David offers to present together, easing Alex into more visible situations.
The Outcome
Over a few months, Alex begins contributing more confidently in meetings. His ideas start to gain traction, and he’s eventually selected to lead a small internal project. David’s discreet guidance helps unlock Alex’s potential—and builds a strong internal relationship.
The Lesson
Influencing isn’t always about changing strategy—it’s also about empowering people. David influenced through quiet mentorship, advocacy, and confidence-building, making a lasting impact on both a colleague and the team.
Example 6: Influencing During Conflict – Resolving a Dispute with Emotional Intelligence
The Situation
Aisha, a project manager, is leading a critical product launch involving three departments: engineering, customer support, and legal. Tensions rise when the legal team delays approvals due to compliance concerns, causing engineering to miss development sprints. Frustration escalates in meetings, and blame starts flying. Deadlines are in jeopardy. Aisha realizes that if she doesn’t intervene wisely, the project could fall apart.
The Influence Strategy
Rather than pushing harder or escalating to executives, Aisha takes a diplomatic route using emotional intelligence:
- Private conversations: She meets separately with team leads to hear their frustrations and perspectives. Instead of assigning blame, she validates their concerns and identifies overlapping goals (product success, brand reputation, user safety).
- Neutral language in group settings: In team syncs, Aisha reframes issues constructively: “Let’s map dependencies and identify where bottlenecks are happening, rather than who’s at fault.”
- Collaborative problem-solving: She introduces a shared project tracker that includes legal review timelines alongside technical milestones, helping everyone visualize the full picture.
- Acknowledging effort publicly: Aisha starts each meeting by thanking departments for specific progress, especially legal—helping defuse tensions and recognize value.
The Outcome
Communication improves, legal becomes more proactive with early guidance, and engineering adjusts sprint planning to avoid future blockers. The product launches just two weeks late, which is considered a success given the complexity.
The Lesson
Influence in conflict resolution relies on empathy, neutrality, and facilitation. Aisha’s leadership wasn’t about authority—it was about guiding people toward shared outcomes by calming emotions and promoting collaboration.
Example 7: Influencing in Negotiation – Securing Resources for Your Team
The Situation
Lena is a UX lead working on a company-wide mobile app redesign. Her team is stretched thin, and upcoming features require usability testing, which means she needs additional budget and two contract researchers. The finance director, however, is hesitant to allocate more funds mid-quarter, especially for work perceived as “non-critical.” Lena realizes that simply stating the need won’t be enough—she must influence strategically.
The Influence Strategy
Lena applies negotiation and framing techniques:
- Framing the benefit, not the need: Instead of saying, “We need two contractors,” she says, “With minimal additional investment, we can reduce the user complaint rate by 30% and avoid a future rebuild.”
- Providing options: She presents two budget scenarios—one with external researchers and one that involves reallocating internal hours with limited output. This makes the value tradeoff obvious.
- Aligning with leadership priorities: Lena references a recent town hall where the CEO emphasized user satisfaction and mobile-first strategy. She quotes this to align her request with top-level objectives.
- Leveraging precedent: She brings data from a previous app iteration showing that usability testing had reduced support tickets by 40%, linking it to cost savings.
The Outcome
The finance director approves one contractor and temporary access to a usability testing platform—enough for Lena to complete testing efficiently and deliver insights that help the engineering team avoid expensive rework.
The Lesson
Lena’s success shows that influencing through negotiation requires understanding your audience’s goals, presenting options, and speaking in terms of impact and value—not just need.
Example 8: Influencing Through Expertise – Becoming the Go-To Voice
The Situation
Carlos is a cybersecurity analyst in a large enterprise IT department. He notices that many teams don’t follow basic security protocols when deploying apps, often skipping steps like multi-factor authentication (MFA) or secure storage. Instead of creating conflict by calling out mistakes, Carlos decides to position himself as a go-to expert who can help improve compliance without becoming the “security police.”
The Influence Strategy
Carlos uses influence by credibility and thought leadership:
- Creating internal content: He writes a short, engaging newsletter titled “Secure Bytes” with weekly tips like “3 quick checks before your next app launch.” The tone is friendly, not preachy.
- Giving before asking: When a dev team pushes a new feature, Carlos voluntarily reviews their code for vulnerabilities and shares a positive, supportive write-up with just a few security suggestions.
- Being visible and accessible: He hosts 15-minute “Security Clinics” twice a month where anyone can ask questions, no matter how basic. These sessions become popular.
- Championing others: When teams implement security improvements, Carlos gives them shout-outs in the newsletter or Slack, reinforcing good behavior.
The Outcome
Security compliance across the company improves by 25% in one quarter. Carlos becomes a sought-after advisor for project teams and is later promoted to lead enterprise security culture initiatives.
The Lesson
Influence based on expertise and generosity is powerful. Carlos shows how you can lead change by educating, supporting, and making yourself indispensable, rather than criticizing or enforcing rules.
Example 9: Influencing Through Vision – Driving Innovation in a Risk-Averse Culture
The Situation
Anika is a senior product manager at a legacy insurance company known for its conservative approach to innovation. She believes there’s a strong opportunity to create a digital self-service claims feature—but many stakeholders, especially legal and compliance, fear disruption and risk. To succeed, Anika must shift mindsets—not just pitch a new product.
The Influence Strategy
Anika uses vision-based influencing, appealing to emotion and long-term goals:
- Painting a picture of the future: In a stakeholder meeting, she opens with a powerful story of a policyholder who had to wait 12 days for a claim update. She contrasts this with a prototype demo that shows a response in under 12 minutes.
- Showing industry trends: She brings in data from competitors and fintech case studies, highlighting what similar companies are doing and the risk of falling behind.
- Creating a pilot approach: Instead of proposing a full rollout, she suggests a low-risk, small-scope pilot for one insurance product, easing resistance.
- Tapping into leadership aspirations: Anika positions the idea not as a disruption, but as a way to reinforce the company’s customer-first mission. “If we really want to put customers first, we need to meet them where they are.”
The Outcome
The pilot is approved with tight oversight and limited rollout. After three months, user satisfaction scores improve by 38%, and the project gains momentum for broader implementation. Anika is later invited to contribute to the company’s digital transformation roadmap.
The Lesson
Influencing through vision and storytelling can break through resistance. Anika succeeded not by challenging authority but by reframing innovation as aligned with values and offering a safe path forward.
Summary: Influence Comes in Many Forms
With these nine diverse examples, it’s clear that influencing at work is not a one-size-fits-all skill. It can take the form of:
- Upward influence (managing expectations with leaders)
- Peer influence (shifting team behavior)
- Cross-functional influence (aligning departments)
- Mentorship-based influence (empowering others)
- Conflict navigation (bringing calm and clarity)
- Negotiation (getting resources or buy-in)
- Expert credibility (becoming the trusted voice)
- Visionary leadership (driving change and innovation)
No matter your role or level, the ability to influence others with authenticity, empathy, and strategic communication is one of the most important professional assets you can develop. Would you like me to now compile a meta title, description, or downloadable PDF for the full set of examples?
